Digi eager to help Sarawak digitise its economy

KUCHING, July 14: Digi is positioning itself to provide digital services, solutions and infrastructure that are in line with the Sarawak government’s plan to digitise its economy.

Digi chief digital officer Praveen Rajan said two core ingredients — infrastructure and education — were essential to help uplift Sarawakians’ income and standard of living.

“If we look at the e-commerce market, it took about 5-7 years before it reached a point of mass adoption in other developed markets. Sarawak will have to start somewhere and somehow.

“On infrastructure, we believe that there needs to be sufficient investments into Internet connectivity, availability of smartphones and mobile internet on these smartphones. All of these seem to be moving in the right direction for Sarawak, and timing seems right to embrace the digital economy,” Praveen told DayakDaily in a recent interview.

The telco understood that participating in Sarawak’s e-commerce and digital transformation might mean logistics challenges, but the involvement also meant opportunities that it had identified as a win for both itself and Sarawakians. Providing user-friendly digital solutions and apps thus is one of its main aims.

“Our focus in Sarawak for the near term is to look at how we can help SMEs in Sarawak. We want to help more SMEs grow their business with high speed Internet connectivity and advanced digital solutions. We want to help Sarawak to address challenges in logistics and transportation, specifically to improve the efficiency of their fleet of commercial vehicles.”

Praveen believed Digi’s iFleet would be able to help SMEs in the state to track and manage their fleet of vehicles and improve business efficiency. It is a low cost investment and provides many advantages (more information is available at ifleet.my).

Digi also has a full spectrum of tools for SMEs that are seeking to go digital, such as vcash — a cashless transaction app; iJual — mobile based order management and sales system; mudah.my — an online marketplace; enterprise solutions such as wireless payment terminals (mPOS), M2M, IP VPN, Leased Lines and Omni PABX, which is cloud communication solution for small businesses that are always on the go, he added.

He revealed that Sarawak had long been a key focus for Digi. The telco had invested long before many other operators to provide the best Internet coverage for Sarawakians. The firm also intends to continue this commitment through “bringing relevant digital initiatives for the Sarawak people and its economy”.

Between 2015 and 2017, Digi invested more than RM135 million collectively in capital expenditure (capex) in Sarawak. In Q1 of 2018, Digi invested RM147 million capex or 9.9 per cent of service revenue as planned and over 8,300km of fiber network nationwide.

In terms of coverage, as of this month, its 4G LTE network will reach 74 per cent of populated areas in the state, with LTE-A coverage reaching 34 per cent.

Praveen believed that “it is the way Digi does things” that makes it different from their competitors.

“At the core of our brand lies the ambition or vision to become a leading integrated digital services enabler in 2020 — something that we’ve also reflected in our statement to become Malaysians’ favourite digital lifestyle partner.

“In order to do so, we have begun the transition. In fact, we are halfway through the transition from being an innovative telco that provides great internet plans to becoming an internet company that provides great digital experiences,” said Praveen. — DayakDaily

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